Where Is Christ In A Time Of Crisis? Session 4

The Old Testament reading this morning is the 39th Psalm in your pew

Bibles That'll be page 467 if you'd like to read along.

I Said I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue. I Will guard my mouth was with a muzzle so long as the wicked are in my presence

I was mute and silent. I held my peace to no avail and my distress grew worse

My heart became hot within me as I mused the fire burned then I spoke with my tongue.

Oh Lord make me know My end and what is the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am

Behold you have made my days a few hand breaths and my lifetime is as nothing before you

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath Surely a man goes about as a shadow

Surely for nothing they are in turmoil man heaps up wealth and does not know who will get who will gather and Now Oh Lord for what do

I wait? My hope is in you Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool.

I am mute I do not open my mouth for it is you who have done it Remove your stroke from me.

I am spent by the hostility of your hand When you just when you discipline a man with rebukes for sin you consume you consume like a moth

What is dear to him surely all mankind is a mere breath? Hear my prayer.

Oh Lord and give ear to my cry Hold not your peace at my tears For I'm a sojourner with you a guest like all my father's

Look away from me that I make that I might smile again before I depart and and and am no more

The New Testament reading this morning comes from the 24th chapter of Luke I will begin reading in verse 13

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened

While they were talking and discussing together Jesus himself drew near and went with them

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him and he said to them What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk and they stood still looking sad

Then one of them named Cleopas Answered him Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

And He said to them what things and they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth a man who was a prophet mighty indeed and word for God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him

But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this it is now the third day since these things happened

Moreover some women of our company amazed us They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body

They came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive some of those who were with us went to the tomb and Found it just as the women had said

But him they did not see and He said to them Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets prophets have spoken was it not necessary that the

Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself

So they drew near to the village To which they were going he acted as if they were going farther

But they urged him strongly saying stay with us for it is Toward evening and the day is now far spent so he went in to stay with them so When he was at the table with them, he took bread and blessed and broke it

And gave it to them and their eyes were opened that they recognized them and he vanished from their sight

You may be seated Well, this is the last session of our

Bible conference for this year we have had a tremendous time around the world with Lance and I'm just thankful for How he's ministered the word to us here and frankly how he's ministered to some of us as we spend time around the table with him and and have

Gotten to know his heart and his life. It's just been a really really good weekend

Some of you haven't been here you don't know Lance I can tell you a little bit about him he

Began ministry as the senior associate pastor with John MacArthur He was the pastor at the

Bible Church of Little Rock, Arkansas for 15 years Went back to California was involved in church planting planted

Bethany Bible Church in Thousand Oaks, California, and now he is the vice president for the expositors seminary

Kind of headquartered in the in the church that he is a part of in Jupiter, Florida Lance is a good friend and he's not just my good friend

He's been a friend to all of us here as he's ministered word. So Lance, we're anticipating God's blessing.

Well, thank you my dear brother to know Tim Pasma is to love

Tim Pasma and it has been a joy to be with Tim and Becca Their family what a joy

What a wonderful church it's been a real thrill and privilege for me to be among you as I brought the

Word of God to you and as we culminate our Bible conference on this day as we open

God's Word if you would please open to Psalm 39 Psalm 39 it has been read this morning to you and So I won't read it again in its fullness, but we will

Go through it expositionally Under the title a humble perspective of suffering a humble perspective of suffering that title and that idea of humble suffering

Has never been more acute in my life than in these days

You can read in Psalm 39 the phrase

That King David gives to us and that is life is a vapor Life is a vapor how true that is

You think to yourself one day that you have the whole of your life to live you are young and free and excited about the future and You presume your whole life is in front of you.

And that would be normal, of course to think about and to anticipate But none of us can measure life by Its years its decades because the

Bible clearly tells us that life is a vapor You and I can presume that we are going to live to a ripe old age

That we are going to be married if we are for many many decades And of course that's natural to think about because you and I presume that we are not going to be in categories of the shortness of life the tragedies of life the challenges of life

I was the same way I just assumed that I was going to be living for many many decades and That I would presumably be married

That I would have children that those children would have children and that I would die in that ripe old age with all of my children and grandchildren around me and that's

Presumably what so many of us would assume about the way life would be if we were in charge when

I was just Approaching the decade of my 50s.

I saw how Vapor like life really was and for the next decade and a few years even into my 60s

I've come to realize that life is not only a vapor, but life can be extremely challenging and that suffering

Will hit me at an apex in the decade of my 50s in 2009

Just as the 50s of my life were dawning my stepfather died

He wasn't Someone that I lived with I didn't actually live with a father my parents were divorced when

I was just four years old and I didn't even meet my biological father until exactly 40 years later when

I was 44 and so this man my stepfather had come into my life my mother had been married four times and this being the fourth and He died at an older age, but it was the first in my family that I could recall where Someone very very close to you has now died and after he died

My own mother died she died on Christmas Day of 2016 of a massive heart attack and she did not know the

Lord She was a restless wanderer my growing up years were very volatile

Arguments Spats Uneasiness Conflict all of those things were how

I lived and how I grew up my sister, and I were always having to to duck and to evade the challenges of our mother because she was so angry and so distraught about life itself

Not growing up with a father seeing that stepfather die and then

Believing that my mother who had actually become a Jehovah's Witness would maybe someday later repent and have her life transformed

It was very very saddened when I was about to preach on a Sunday morning in California and Christmas Day was on a

Sunday that year To get a phone call early that my mother had gone into a hospital in the

Little Rock, Arkansas area where I grew up in the state of Arkansas and was told that somehow in some way she'd had a massive heart attack in the middle of the night and She had died.

She was being treated for a blood clot behind her right knee and so it seemed routine, but either apparently that clot had

Been that which she succumbed with a stroke or Heart attack it was

It was very sad to me, and I thought well possibly since these are a little bit older of persons

That my family wouldn't have a death for a long time to come thinking of course and knowing and affirming that life is a vapor, but You assume that that's probably true more so of other people my wife

Was diagnosed with very serious cancer on December 2nd of 2017 Just Not too long after my own mother's death and in the midst of caring for her and all of her

Treatment for very serious non -smoker lung cancer We had a sweet little baby boy who was born to our family from my oldest son

Calvin Theodore Quinn He was precious He was born a little bit early, but not too distressingly and He was doing fine.

He was in a NICU unit in a hospital. That's only two minutes from my house we were rejoicing and the

Particular couple my son and his wife my daughter -in -law had already had one son already and He was so excited about his little brother and around day four of this little one's life

Calvin Theodore Unbeknownst to all of us including even the medical care workers

They wanted to put a PICC line into his little body to give him a little bit more nourishment And get his weight up a little bit though.

He was very very fine doing well at four days of age But unfortunately the

PICC line that they used to insert into his little body Was not properly sterilized and he became very very sick and two days later.

He died life is a vapor He only had six days of life

It was crushingly hard. It's one thing perhaps to have certain family members die

But it's entirely another when one who is your own grandson and how you watch your own children

Deal with the death of a six -day -old baby My wife was particularly

Jarred by that because of her own battle with cancer his death was in August of 2018 and Beth was doing well my wife.

We were having excellent scan reports. We were thanking God that even though there was such a dire initial diagnosis and a very bleak prognosis

The Lord was continually giving us wonderful days together that we could maximize because life is a vapor, but it did come

To a place where around March 1st of 2020 even as kovat was just around the corner

That Beth began to feel very poorly and we discovered around March 15th that She had another form of cancer that the oncologist didn't know about and wasn't suspecting

Kind of cancer that was untreatable and fatal within two weeks

And so on March 30th Of 2020 at 440 p .m.

My wife died and I was again reminded that life is a vapor.

She was such an elegant and classy and godly woman She loved the

Lord deeply and she loved me and she loved our children. We have eight children Five girls and three boys and They now have their children.

We have 12 of them including that deceased child and I would have otherwise assumed that Beth was going to be vibrantly alive and Able to enjoy her children and grandchildren.

All of them were around us within Oh a few minutes and so it was again just a strange

Providence Why because I assumed that We would be living together as man and wife or More than 33 and a half years.

I assumed we'd have a 50th wedding anniversary. I Assumed that we would watch

Probably our other children who had not yet had children have even more children and that we would have a grand brood.

So Even these children that have been born since my wife's death She's not been able to touch or hold or kiss or caress

Why because life is a vapor it seemed as though that was such a crushing thing and it seemed as though just about every two years a death was just around the corner and Yet, I assumed that with the death of my wife things would slow down a little bit and death wouldn't be paying visits to our family, but less than three months later,

I Received a call from my niece in Arkansas Asking me if I'd talked to her mother my sister my only sister.

I said well, I tried to reach out to her I sent her a Message on resurrection that I just preached that had some personal references to my wife

Beth whom my sister loved and I Said she hasn't responded to my communication

Is there something wrong and she said yes She's in hospice care and she has about a week left in life

And I said what? How could that be? But what are you talking about and she said well, you know that my mom has

Smoked herself into very serious decline and What you and I had not known was that she was also drinking herself to such excess that her liver has failed and She's basically

Drank and smoked herself to death not a believer. So I said

I'll be there tomorrow So I jumped on a overnight plane and I was there in the afternoon in Dallas, Texas Pleading with my sister to repent and believe the gospel

She could not communicate She was near death's door and she died one week later

Asking even in her final days if she could be given more Cigarettes to smoke life is a vapor my friends

It's here today and gone tomorrow It's very fast when

I assumed that The funeral service for my sister which was actually conducted by me on what would have been her 61st birthday was surely the end at least for now of some of this cascading

Repetitious moments of funerals and death and Less than a year after that my favorite aunt died the one who

I stayed with when my mother was so volatile and This aunt my favorite aunt became more of a mother to me than my mother was a mother to me

And I received word would you come and please do the funeral service of your aunt in Arkansas because she has died as well and so Less than a year later.

I was presiding over her funeral also, and I was reminded again and again and again

That life is a vapor and I was thinking my stepfather my mother

My grandson my wife my sister and my aunt

The decade of my 50s and in now to the early part of my 60s

Has been nothing but a challenge to see and perceive God's plans and God's God's ways

And then I came across Psalm 39 Look at it with me Psalm 39 we've read it earlier as I said and Psalm 39 has become a

Precious Psalm to me I Presume that you all love to read the

Psalms They are so heartwarming So praise conscious and yet so also raw and real and This is

Psalm 39 David even talks about life is a vapor and So when

I was going through all of these Death after death after death after death experiences with very close members of my family

I read Psalm 39 and it was mesmerizing searching soul searching and Yet glorious all at the same time and when

I read Psalm 39 and I Looked at all of its constituent parts. I realized

That this is a message that out of my own Experience of all of these deaths in my family.

It could be an encouragement to all of you And so if I were to outline

Psalm 39 I would outline it in this way very very succinctly be careful be clear be contrite and be consistent

That's really the the message of Psalm 39 be careful be clear

Be contrite and Be consistent. What do I mean? Well, let's look at the first three verses of Psalm 39 under that outline point be careful

Now maybe you're going to say be careful of what and that's what I said. Be careful of what?

To what am I to be careful and I think it's this to be careful just to whom and Just how you talk about life's difficulties.

That's really the first three verses of Psalm 39 be careful whom

To whom and just how you talk to the people around you about life's

Difficulties notice what King David says He says to the choir master to jettison a psalm of David.

This is a song David has written a song And he says I said

I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.

I Will guard my mouth with a muzzle So long as the wicked are in my presence

Now now whatever is going on in David's heart according to Psalm 39

He's saying something about his mouth His speech his tongue

When he is standing around unbelievers That's that's clearly

What needs to be interpreted here? He says I will guard my ways that I meant that I may not sin with my tongue well, if you add that In the context of verse 4.

Oh Lord make me know my end and what is the measure of my days?

Let me know how fleeting I am Behold you have made my days verse 5 a few hand breaths and my lifetime is nothing before you

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath. Surely a man goes about as a shadow

David is obviously thinking about the brevity of life how short it is How quickly life is here and then it's gone and I take that to mean that Somehow when

David is around unbelievers, he's saying to himself I Better be careful about how

I talk about life and death and about how quickly It is and comes.

I better be careful when I'm around those who don't know God. I Better be careful what

I say, and I think that's very very necessary and very good medicine for us for instance just with myself

All of these deaths all of these six deaths right in a row

When a father figure dies and your mother And your grandson at such a tender age and your own wife the wife of your youth and your sister your only sister

And your favorite aunt when when in rapid -fire succession these deaths occur in your life

There is a temptation. We all know it to say something like this God. This isn't fair I don't agree with what you're doing and I think frankly that what's happening in my life and all

I'm experiencing in these decades the this decade of my 50s is that you are arbitrary and capricious as a

God You ever known any unbelievers who might talk like that mad

Forlorn irritable Volatile angry At what they presume is not the goodness of God, but his arbitrariness

His capriciousness Just just talk to a normal run -of -the -mill person who's who's a unbeliever who's just experienced some kind of death that they do not agree was either necessary or Right or best in the context of their life and just listen to what they say

So often you're going to hear those very words. This is not fair This is not right, and maybe even going into a place of inditing

God About his arbitrariness And saying what you are doing is unfair and I'm going to hold you eternally

At fault for what you've done in my life I've heard those things you've heard from Unbelievers those very things and I think in verses 1 2 & 3

David is saying I've got to guard my mouth. I Have to guard my ways

If necessary, I've got to guard my mouth with a muzzle as the wicked are in my presence

Now it doesn't mean that you don't have your own questions even as a believer It doesn't mean that you're always going to be on Rosie Street where you think that even with death being all around you and even though you believe

God to be a good God that you still don't have any questions. I've asked a thousand questions, but when

I'm around unbelievers, I Don't act and talk like unbelievers and that's what

David's doing Now it also doesn't mean That when you're lying in your bed and the night watches and your wife isn't there right next to you and your little baby has died and All of the people who are close to you and your immediate family are dropping like flies that everything's rosy

Everything's cheeky. Everything's great. It's grand. It's not It's not and David says in verse 2.

I was mute and silent I held my peace to no avail and my distress what?

Grew worse. In other words, he was keeping it inside It was pinned up.

It's not as though We're playing a game here with unbelievers where we're telling them. Oh, no, everything's great

The death of your people you don't need to worry about that. This is okay But David is saying look

I Need to respond to them in an appropriate way, but that doesn't mean that all my questions have immediately gone away

My distress grew worse. He says Verse 3 my heart became hot within me and then just as honest and raw and real as he could possibly be he says as I mused as I thought about it as I laboriously worked through in the night watches all that was happening in my life and we don't know exactly what was happening in David's life.

We don't know if it was a problem an issue a person a calamity

Whatever it was, but when he was around unbelievers, he kept his mouth

Appropriately shut he was being careful of what he says, but that's only half the battle and as I mused he says the fire burned

Then I spoke with my tongue and he did what you and I often and should do and What is that I went to the

Lord I went to the Lord and what was his state well,

I was being careful But I also need to be secondly clear I need to be clear clear about what

Here's what I need to be clear about David says about the true nature of man about how utterly short

Life is for mankind And here's what he says look at verse 4. Oh Lord Yahweh Make me know my end.

I just read it a moment ago. What is the measure of my days? Let me know how fleeting I am

How transient I am? Behold you you've made my days a few hand breaths.

What's a hand breath? What is that? Well take your finger in your your fingers on your hand and raise your hand everybody raise your hand take

Your measurement from here to here Maybe four inches five inches six inches max.

That's a hand breath. That's the breadth of your hand That's how long life is four inches five

Six at the most this is how short life is It's it's a vapor

Sometimes the scripture in the Old Testament says this is the length or duration of life you ready

That's it a breath a mere breath It's it's here, and it's gone and so he goes to the

Lord He doesn't go to unbelievers and trash the Lord. He goes to the Lord, and he says you've got to make me know my end the span of my life the measure of my days how fleeting my life is

I'm burning inside. I'm wondering I'm Pondering give me truth.

Give me transparency Give me knowledge. Give me understanding You've made my days a few hand breaths and my lifetime.

It's nothing Before you it's it's it's like I was never around and then he widens it surely all

Mankind stands as a mere breath Boy how true that is oh

I know there are the young people around us, and they think they've got all of their life

It's just ahead of me. I can grab all the gusto. I'm free.

I'm easy. I'm young. I'm talented I Could do whatever I want and then you even have

TV preachers To tell them you can pray anything into existence

That's a lie you can pray But God is the one who brings everything into existence and he also takes life away

That's what David's learning Surely a man goes about as a shadow surely for nothing verse 6

They are in turmoil man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather and do you see that little phrase?

Right there between verses 5 & 6 say la It's like a musical term.

It's like a term that speaks of a musical interlude Where you have the music going but the words are not being sung and I presume that maybe say la

I mean something like this Stop your singing of the words and simply listen to the music and ponder

What has been sung? ponder Think about it

Roll it around in your mind muse upon it, and here's what you are musing upon.

I have to understand how short life is and Then you start beginning to realize that if life is so short like this

Maybe I ought to start maximizing every one of my days for Jesus Christ Every day don't slough off Don't take spiritual vacations don't be indolent and lazy

Don't presume you've got the rest of your life to live you don't and God could cut it short and he may

And often at times he does You say yeah, but that's that's my problem.

I Understand if David doesn't want to talk to unbelievers. He wants to be careful about that But when it's just me and my

God and when I'm laying in my bed and the night watches Aren't I able to say this is unfair?

Well in some ways some of these Psalmists seem to be doing that Lord.

How long? How long? How long will you not come to me?

How long will it be if you are not rescuing me? well, that's one thing and That in the psalmist's hearts are completely and totally understandable

It's when you and I get to a place like this God. You took my wife away, and I hold you responsible as Though he answers to me

I Don't answer to him. I expect him to do whatever I want him to do. I expect him to do what

I command him to do You say oh, I would I would never do that Well, certainly not outwardly

We wouldn't be fine upstanding evangelicals if we said things like that out loud But sometimes in those night watches we may be laying on our bed thinking that very thing.

I hold you responsible. I Don't like what you've done. I Believe it's wrong.

I believe it's arbitrary. I believe it's capricious I believe it's something that shouldn't have happened You shouldn't have taken that woman away from your chip from her children and from her grandchildren and you shouldn't be taking her away from me and for those others who love her and and Have ministered to her and have been ministered to by her.

This is not the right plan That's why you got to be careful and You got to be clear

You've got to be clear like David's clear. You've got to acknowledge. This is how life is. This is how a short life is intensified and so Being both careful and clear you and I if we have that attitude

Like David is seemingly saying about himself. This is what I'm thinking

I don't tell unbelievers this but this is what I may be thinking and that's why the third

Point is this be contrite be contrite What do

I mean look at verse 7 and now O Lord For what do I wait?

But my hope is in you and then notice verse 8 deliver me from all my

Transgressions do not make me the scorn of the fool. I am mute

I do not open my mouth for it is you who have done it. What has he done verse 10 remove your stroke from me?

I Am spent by the hostility of your hand. Oh, I see what's going on now verse 11

David's actually being disciplined by the Lord verse 11 when you discipline a man with rebukes for sin

You consume like a moth what is dear to him. Surely all mankind is a mere breath.

Oh, I Think I'm beginning to understand I held my tongue in the ears of the unbelievers

But I grew worse because I needed a heart check Though I wasn't telling the unbelievers that God was arbitrary

I think I was saying in my heart even in those times of great despair

You're not good God at least not good enough for my tastes

And what the Lord had to do was to say my dear

David You've crossed the line You've crossed the line and now you are to be disciplined

I'm going to chastise you as my son as your heavenly father and Notice the words that David is contritely saying verse 8 my transgressions verse 10

Remove your stroke from me. I am spent Verse 11 rebukes for sin

You know say whatever you want to say about David But he was raw and real and even in this moment

He was acknowledging his sin like Psalm 32, right? We read it like Psalm 51

We call them penitential Psalms Psalms of the penitent psalms of the sinner

Psalms of the one who needs to repent about our attitudes toward God and I think it's probably true to say that one of the greatest struggles of the

Christian life is To acknowledge that God is the Lord of both life and death.

He's in charge of it He knows the rightness of it He knows the timing of it

He knows That there is a plan and a purpose in his grand providence that Sometimes even means the death of a child at six days of age

And that's often where someone says I do not agree with that There is no good in a baby dying that young no good in that at all

And if that's the kind of God you serve and if that's the kind of God that you expect to be serving all of your

Life count me out Why because I'm using my own frame of reference.

I'm using what I think God ought to be I'm assuming that God ought to bend to all my ideas and my wants and my wishes and my

Commands and we've got the thing topsy -turvy It's like the philosopher

Voltaire Who said God created man in his own image and then man turned around and returned the favor

Creating God in man's image That's what we do That's what we do

God doesn't come through for us in the way that we want him to then I'll reverse the process and I'll start questioning him

You you sit down here You just sit down right here, I've got a huge number of questions for you

Is that what Job did at one point Job says

I want a courtroom scene with the Almighty I've got some questions

I need to ask him and to which God responded when he ultimately responded and said this

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? You questioning me

You say well that sounds like that kind of arbitrary capricious God Who's who's catching one of his creatures up short and saying who are you?

Where's the love in that? Where's the Where's the fatherly nature in that?

I tell you what if you and I knew What God was up to in his plan and purposes for all of our lives.

We would never question one thing Not one thing because if we knew what he knew and if we knew his

Compassion and his love and his plan and his purpose and all of the things that God Knows that we do not know we would never question one thing

You know that in heaven when we're all there together There'll never be one question to God about anything because he knows all things

And he's good Psalm 119 68 a God is good and does good and He's a wise heavenly father and when he disciplines like David says here

When you discipline a man verse 11 with rebukes for sin David's acknowledging look you the divine discipliner and You're doing it because you're rebuking me for I sin

He's acknowledging that It doesn't mean that the questions are out of line but when you question the

Almighty about his goodness and his plan and his purpose as though you think you ought to be in charge

You've crossed the line Doesn't mean you have to know everything Doesn't mean you have to agree with everything and it doesn't mean that at times you might say how long

Oh Lord But you are doing it in a reverential way You are doing it with a hesitation

Because you know that you are coming in prayer to the Almighty God who knows all things and it was also a loving father be careful and Be contrite

Because he's never sinned and we have and then finally number four

Not only be careful be clear be contrite, but also be consistent be consistent

Be consistent about what look at verse 12 Hear my prayer

Oh Lord Hear my prayer David's David's come to prayer and he says give ear to my cry

Hold not your peace at my tears For I am a sojourner with you a guest like my father's.

I'm just passing through Look away from me that I may smile again before I depart and am no more

What's David saying there? What's he saying in verses 12 and 13? When he says hear my prayer

Oh Lord He's at least acknowledging that God is higher than he is and that he's coming to God in prayer

He Wants to be contrite we know that from the previous verses and now he goes right back to God And he says give ear to my cry.

I'm acknowledging. I'm crying to you God There's nothing and God does not have a problem with you coming to him with our tears

Believe you me And the six deaths of these people and particularly my wife and my grunts grandson

I have come to God with many tears Many tears and that's what

David is saying, but notice what he's asking God to consistently give him whole not your peace

You know what peace is peace is that great Hebrew word shalom? Shalom means peace wholeness

Tranquility Blessing that's why when two

Jewish people Meet each other and one says shalom

And the other says shalom lachem peace to you and Peace to you as well

Wholeness I Want you to live a holistic life. I want you to be blessed and One of the ways to be blessed is what

David is asking for hold not your peace in my shalom

I want you I need you. I'm coming to you as my heavenly father and yes

I'm coming to you in my tears, and I'm asking you once again to manifest your peace in my life

I Mean what all is said and done and with all the death and destruction around us

The mainspring of our lives is to know that God is at peace with me and that I'm at peace with him and that He's going to continue to pour out his peace in my need my tears

I'm crying. I Need you Lord. I Can't do this without you

I can't respond as a Christian. I can't be Responding to the

Lord Jesus Christ even in my tears if I believe I've been cut off from your peace

Grant me peace in my turmoil. He says

I'm a sojourner with you I'm a guest Like my father's it's like that old song

The world is not my home. I'm just a passing through I'm a sojourner.

I'm a stranger in this life I don't ultimately because of my faith in Jesus Christ belong in this sin -sick world

I want to go to heaven. I want to be with Christ when

Philippians 1 came to my heart as my wife lay dying I Had a new sense of understanding when

Paul says to depart and be with Christ is far Better You see when

I think about my wife. I try not to think about her in the sense of what

I lost But of what she has gained She's gained heaven

She's gained glory She's gained the removal of a sin -sick body

And one day when she and I will be a part of the great Resurrection of the dead and when our souls and bodies are reunited, there's no more sin.

No more sorrow no more tears, no more sickness and Her soulish dimension is experiencing that right?

People have asked me. How are you doing lately? How are you doing with all of this? And I say my wife's in Christ and she's with Christ and She would not give that up to come back and be with me at all and I totally understand that so Lance get yourself off yourself and Your desires and your needs and your sorrows and your trials and your challenges and tests in life and get your mind on the truth

That to depart and be with Christ is far better That's peace

And then he finally says as we close look away from me Look away from me

That I may smile again. He means look away from me in terms of your strokes your your discipline

Look away from me in terms of your fatherly discipline that I may smile again

Smile again. I need your smile of grace Grace and peace.

That's what we need to consistently ask God for. I mean you got to be careful and You got to be clear and you got to be contrite when your

Heavenly Father is disciplining you and when the discipline is over You need to consistently ask for peace and grace

The smile of God's grace and he says and Lord do it before I depart and am no more

Let me ask you this morning as we close. Do you know Jesus Christ? Do you know him personally?

Do you have a relationship with him in the sense that you are asking him to give you his smile of?

peace and grace Even in the midst of your worst Circumstances.

Oh, I trust that it's true of you. Let's pray together Father this surely is by King David a humble

Perspective on suffering We don't know exactly what he was going through but we know that he did go through it and he came out the other side with a plea for peace and grace for your loving smile

Yes, his heart burned within him Yes, he was doing something ultimately that he should not have been doing and he recognized his transgressions and his sin and and he confessed them he was contrived and and Then he came back to where he should be.

He was asking for more peace and grace and you are so Gracious to give it to us

Lord forgive me for all of those times that I questioned your goodness or I besmirched your character and the night watches that this isn't fair or right or best or good and Thank you for your forgiving love

May it be ever ours For all of the trials in our lives and let us with us say la

When the words are not being sung, but the hymn tune is there. Let us silently acknowledge our sin and Ask you for more grace and peace

May it be so and may there not be one person here Who has not bowed the knee and humble submission to Jesus Christ The great

Savior of our souls and the one to whom we will give an eternal account

May we love him all the more as the one Who knows all things?